


Aetea (still searching for a reason, why is it so hard to find one)

by yawning_inF



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Child Abuse, Confessions, F/M, First Kiss, Head Injury, I promise it gets less angsty, I'm Going To Hell For This, I'm not even that hard on him, Injury Recovery, Jiara July, Panic Attacks, forgot to tag it before, jj baby I'm so sorry, kiara baby I'm so sorry, luke maybank deserves to die, no beta we die like peterkin (rip queen)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yawning_inF/pseuds/yawning_inF
Summary: All hell breaks loose when JJ returns 'home' for the first time after John B's disappearance.. Luckily for him, Kiara would have never let him go in the mouth of the wolf alone[Jiara Week Day 7: Genre Day]
Relationships: JJ & Kiara (Outer Banks), JJ/Kiara (Outer Banks)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 67
Collections: Jiara July Jubilee





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This had been chilling in my WIPs for some time now, figured I'd post for jiara week. Second chapter is almost done and on the way! Sorry for crappy writing. Enjoy! :)

Have you ever felt being buried alive in your brain? Your thoughts working tirelessly with your fear as a shovel, desperate to finish piling dirt over your bare body, drowning you with the mud of your deepest worries proving true.

In case you don't know how it feels to want to scream but no sound coming out, because your throat is clogged with the handfuls of panic and your trachea is crushed by the sheer brutality of your cries, you don't know how Kie felt in that moment. The undercurrent of anguish flowed through her veins instead of blood and she couldn't bring herself to hold back the muddy tears.

"Stop!! You're gonna kill him!!"

JJ landed hard on the corner of the small accent table with a sickening thud, the force of the impact knocking the wind out of his lungs, but as the father lunged forward to deliver another blow at the son, Kiara's heart ripping protest went to waste.

He laid where he fell, his body a mere mess of exerted limbs, when several cruel kicks shoved that mess to the side, coming down with brutal force, crushing his ribs, as they had done only so many times before.

Kiara averted her blurry gaze from the scene, hot tears streaming down her face as she broke into uncontrollable sobs.

"You piece of shit! You so naive, thinking I wouldn't find out? Yer even more useless than I thought you were! Ya hear me?!"

And he heard, the words just another dart aiming straight at his heart, only intensifying his physical pain. JJ glanced at Kiara, something akin to guilt dimming the light in his eyes and she shuddered, because _it shouldn't have been there._

Before the boy could feel more guilty for the anguished expression on her face, the beast yanked his barely conscious son from the collar of his shirt and lifted him inches above the ground. He stared directly into his blue eyes, one bruised and swollen from the punches. Although, he shouldn't be called a beast, she was being too kind, too easy on him,, Kiara thought while her tears of despair mixed with her repulse for the... the _monster_ .

The father's face contorted in a horrific display of his madness, shaking the boy who was desperately gasping for air. The strangled noise that escaped his torn lips broke Kie's heart and twisted her insides, making her cringe in pain.

She shouted at the monster to let go of JJ so loud that the words grazed her throat, or maybe she thought so because of the lump that had formed there since they first set foot in this house of nightmares.

"Stop.."

The monster did not stop.

"Please!"

The monster didn't hesitate, didn't hold the clenched fists back.

"You're supposed to love him!" she yelled, still crying, still trying to find a way to make him stop, to take his focus off the blonde boy. Oh, that blonde boy, so full of life and love, now surrendered before the injustice of the world. Another dagger was hurled towards her heart, from all the slashes oozing pain and tears.

She gathered all her courage and prayed it was enough to help her drop the bomb:

"No wonder why your wife _left_ you!"

She made sure to highlight every word to provoke him, she was going to draw him like a magnet, away from JJ, because she decided she couldn't bear it anymore. She couldn't bear his pain. She was being too bold, but, frankly, she didn't care. She was going to take his pain, even if that meant she had to make it hers.

Luke Maybank stopped, though he was still grasping JJ in a chokehold. His movement paused however and he responded without clenching a muscle, without turning to look at her. He stayed so awfully still and somehow that made it all so much worse.

" _What_ did you just say?"

The monster dropped his son to fall back on the ground in a heartbeat and whirled around with a jolt. He started marching menacingly towards Kiara, her tiny frame looking like a little toy compared to his bulky build.

Kiara gulped as she backed away, but eventually her back thudded against the concrete wall and the closest possible exit was awfully far out of her reach. The monster's fist slammed the wall just above her shoulder, the force of impact causing the cheap plaster to peel away and turn into nothing more but a stain on Kiara's luscious locks and litter the ground. She yelped in surprise and terror, recoiling into a small bundle of tanned skin and raising her arms protectively around her head.

JJ laid hopelessly on the ground, coughing furiously and spitting blood, leaning on his elbow as to not choke. However when Kiara's yell so much as reached his ears, his every cell shifted towards the horrific sound.

As he watched his father looming over her and _daring to threaten her_ , at the prospect of him laying his filthy hands on Kie- on _his_ Kie, something finally clicked inside of him.

There was only one piece of the puzzle left and it was a perfect fit. The words, the bruises, the feelings, the pain- all composing a perfect symphony, a complex mosaic that finally spelled it out for him, loud and clear.

It was all fucking wrong.

He had known before too, but now, he _knew_.

 _Infuriated_ beyond reason, he wasn't bound to give up. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, summoned by all the years of mutual hell carved into his brain with the claws of injustice.

"Hey, old man!"

He took a moment to recollect the broken pieces of his self as he struggled to get back on his feet before continuing.

"Tired already?" he snarled, his mouth was dripping poison, his senses only slightly swimming. His irises contracted with hate because no matter how much it _hurt to_ , he despised the man his father was, loathed him with a every bruise and every cut- with every fiber of his being. Years and _years_ of despair and sorrow concealed by his disconsolate need to justify the cruelty, to be guilty of _something_ , to find reason in the lack of affection in his father's eyes.

No matter how hard he wished, he could never find a reason.

Because there was fucking none.

The monster smirked with amusement at the comment, a gesture that only made Kiara fee morel sick. He arched an eyebrow in fake astonishment as he hissed a reply.

"You up for more, chum?"

Before he could finish poisoning the air with his alcohol scented words he was tackled over the table by his son, the sudden and violent motion earning a sharp shout of pain from them both. Soon they were brawling across the narrow room, knocking furniture aside and crashing the more fragile objects with swift, unfocused movements.

"Kiara!", the blonde yelled, and it was almost a plea, "Get the hell out of here, now!"

JJ's fist found his father's face in a glorious moment, and the monster briefly stumbled backwards before finding his balance and jabbing an elbow to his son's sides, making him groan involuntarily.

"I- I'm not leaving you!" Kie stuttered and stating her defiance to get to safety only earned her a pained glance from JJ. It was a simple look and though it lasted for half a second, Kiara could easily interpret the meaning behind it. Carefully concealed in his silence but _there_ , was an defeated _why_. Why _bother_. It made the fire in the veins of her neck flare up and one more blade to penetrate her skin. It made the unshed stars of glistening tears sting and burn with renewed passion.

Was he really even questioning it? Was he _that oblivious_?

"Because I love you."

It was less than a whisper, perhaps simply a breath of wind softly hummed between cerulean waves.

Softer than the mellow aftertaste of a tangerine and coral painted sky, dispersing into a star studded darkness of the night. The bittersweet smile of an end and a beginning. Still, JJ caught it and clung to the words, unblinking, and _beautiful like a god sculpted out of aegean marble_. Mouth agape, scrambling to grasp the meaning, to wrap his head around the endless possibilities behind a door previously locked being slammed open before his eyes, so suddenly and widely it feels like a fever dream. Kiara's breath hitched, either aghast at her own revelation, either in the aftermath of her subsiding weeping.

Half a second had passed, and still it was enough for the monster to regain his strength. He darted forward and pushed with all his might, and suddenly JJ was sent tumbling to the ground. Kiara jolted at his fall, her breathing growing ragged and shallow, her chest heaving desperately in search of air, to no avail.

With every punch Kiara was spiraling further down, further away, until she couldn't feel, and she couldn't hear, and she couldn't see through the wet and cloudy barricades oozing from her hollow eyes.

There's a scream, muffled and desperate. And there's blood accompanying the sharp crunch of bone. There's blood on knuckles and there's blood on face. There's blood on her vision, dragging her back to reality, anchoring her mind to the pain and her feet to the wooden planks a little too dirty to belong to an inhabited home.

But as Kiara stood rooted to the ground, her legs slowly being deprived of feeling as her whole body was shaking in loud sobs of despair, she felt something entirely different. Right there, in the pit of her stomach, was brewing something other than the sickness and nausea that overwhelmed her.

It was gaining ground. Winning.

Anger.

Rage that fueled up her courage, the intoxicating need to express itself started pulling her invisible strings.  
In the haze of her madness she grabbed the very first thing she was able to reach with nervous and tense, although concentrated movements.

JJ's weak groans hadn't subsided until he drifted out of consciousness. The monster kept on hitting his son mercilessly. Devoured by his unquenchable desire for pain the monster didn't notice how that 'pathetic little bitch' that had come along with his disappointment of a son, towered over his unprotected back.

Steel determination adorned her still watery eyes. Only a shrieking cry reached the monster's ears, and even thay was hollowed out by his blood lust.

He turned around just in time to feel the cold glass shatter, and sink into his scalp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was it for the first chapter! I wasn't going to divide at first but then I had last minute inspiration for a fic for an overlapping fic week and the ending to this kinda never got written in time. Please tell me what you think so far! Love yall <3


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The can of worms is open but it's not the only thing that is. Hearts get poured out somewhere amidst the action and the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! Took longer than I expected. This is twice as long as the 1st chapter due to.. personal reasons. Im treating you fluff today uwu. I certainly do hope it's better than my anxiety is telling me it is. Anyway, enjoy!

It wasn't supposed to go this way. No, no. It was supposed to be _fine_.

This did _not_ qualify as fine.

But like lives are not supposed to sail in the storm and the storm is not supposed to help death outrun their years by sinking them beneath the waves and foam, things don't always go as planned.

JJ's body wasn't supposed to look so broken and Kiara's hands weren't supposed to have blood on them. No, her fingers shouldn't have been dyed in this dark crimson of sin.

The remainder of tears stored in her decided to leave her eyes and dance with the blood in her hands, dance with the sin, try to wash it away.

She let out the weakest mumble of despair as realization had hit her. She might have killed someone. She might have-

Her eyes moved frantically between the two bodies slumped over each other, as full of life as all those inanimate objects littering the ground. They were both too still. She gasped at the sight, panic overwhelming her and her senses dimmed by the thought that plagued her brain.

That she had no damn idea what to do.

Kiara kneeled down and gathered all her strength to move the weight of the monster off of her friend. She gritted her teeth in a feckless attempt to free the blonde boy from being crushed by the man.

Even unconscious, he was still causing him pain.

She cursed under her breath before pushing again with all her might and managing first to shove the man to the side, then to get ahold of the boy, pulling him on top of the mess of tangled limbs.

"JJ! JJ can you hear me?" she practically yelled at his bruised face, her voice cracking under the pressure. Not getting an answer, she swallowed the throbbing pain wanting to escape her throat and tried to put some kind of order in her pounding head.

Heartbeat. She had to check his heartbeat.

She wiped her palms on her thighs to rid them of the sweat. A pointless action, since the fluid kept escaping through her pores, itching her skin as it fell down in thick droplets.

Taking a deep breath, Kiara placed her fingers on his neck and by the time thirty seconds had passed and she could calculate the rythm of his pulse, she was ready to faint.

It was fast, but steady.

A breath that she wasn't able to let out before evaded her lips, along with a relieved chuckle. His heart sounded just like any heart should. Still, his breathing was ragged. She figured it was because of the state of his ribs and nose. His entire body was covered in scrapes and the various bruises had already started dyeing purple patches of skin.

She was dreadfully sure she had heard something break, perhaps right before she had…

Right before she had potentially murdered someone in cold blood.

_Oh god._

Sweat started showering her again, an insufferable heat urging her to try -and fail- to catch her breath. Drowning in vague but persistent ramblings racing through her brain, Kie felt like she could throw up any minute.

Should she call 911?

Should she check if the monster is still alive?

She should call.

But first check.

But what if..

…what if he's _dead_?

For a solid minute the single thing she felt capable of doing was pacing back and forth while frantically pulling at her hair, as if she was plucking the weed from the field of her mind, so that she could plant a sensible contemplation.

Resisting the ever growing urge to vomit she crouched next to the unconscious body of the man, reluctantly raising her hand above his nose. In a swift flare of his nostrils warm air blew against her palm.

A sniffle escaped her as she withdrew her hand from the repulsive face.

She sat down, her head facing her bent knees. Another one. A tear followed.

Slowly tears were falling like currents destined to ford countries and forests of her cheeks to end up in the sea of her lap. She let each and every muscle in her body relax and fall down, mirroring that one wall that falls and lets the enemy breach.

Surrendered to the sensation of emerging from the moonlit waves and breathing in the midnight breeze.

Rich, chestnut waves a crown on her head as it arose to face the ceiling, or perhaps what laid beyond, and while the tears were still fresh carving their path down her skin, she started laughing.

Laughing so loud it almost sounded hysterical. Nothing made sense anymore so why should that matter?

"I'm not a bloody murderer" she announced in between laughs, the knot in her stomach starting to dissolve just an inch. Taking a deep, shuddering breath she whipped her phone out from the back pocket of her shorts and dialed those three numbers every soul knows by heart.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"I--"

Kiara suddenly froze. She turned to look at JJ's broken form with guilt in her eyes. That was it. Questions would be asked and the answers required would simply birth more problems. The wolves had chased them and they had run, but now they had come all the way to the start of the cliff.

They would have to learn how climb down the rocks. To survive.

"Miss?"

Her attention shifted back to the ongoing call as she took a deep breath before spitting out those next sentences that would save her JJ, but could perhaps doom him.

"Two people are injured. Badly" she declared with an unnaturally casual tone. She flinched at how cruel and unfeeling she sounded after having been drained of the pearly tears. _Numb_ , she ventured. Yeah, that should be the word.

After having shared their location and been told that a bus would probably arrive there in less than fifteen minutes, Kiara sat down on the edge of the couch with her gaze fixed on JJ's closed shut eyes. She pictured those wonderful blue eyes, captivating depths of the ocean, waves inviting, that could devour you in a heartbeat, bringing you down beneath the horizon, the warm rays bathing your salty skin in the sunlight like a faraway promise of safety. Like home.

She always felt secure with JJ. When she could smell his scent of carefree summer and admire his loose strands of hair flowing with the gentle wind like golden sand reshaping the desert hills, she felt untouchable. Clear dominance over her self, only _she_ could dictate her destiny, in spite of any concept of fate. Ironically enough, it was not her will that demanded she quenched her thirst in the radiant oasis that were his eyes, amidst the fervor of his blazing smile.

_I'm getting carried away_ , she reminded herself and dismissed the thoughts with a shake of her head.

She decided it would be best if she didn't attempt to wake him up. It would serve no purpose other than she'd have an easier time waiting, the knot in her stomach would have begun to untangle.

Her fingers absentmindedly toyed with her bracelets while her concerned glare lingered on JJ's limp form. Instinctively, her grip tightened on the bright colored beads when her eyes met with the purple patches of skin. They looked like a spiraling vortex, bizarre black holes embroidered on his soft epidermis.

Kiara was exhausted of witnessing the manifestation of his father's corruption on his body. She yearned to feel him in the safety of her lap, her breath caressing his ear with soft whispers of comfort. And when his wounds would heal she wished they never reappeared, no secret pain staining his teasing smirk after he had found yet another way to mess with her.

The ambulances arrived shortly indeed. Father and son were loaded inside the vehicles while paramedics tended to the most urgent wounds. Kiara played along the lines of being too shaken up to provide any answer to questions, which wasn't that far from reality. She reached her parents' car, loyally waiting parked a few feet away from the house and turned on the engine.

Following closely behind the vehicles as they rode to the hospital she utilized the few minutes to try and conjure a scenario that would explain what happened as painlessly as possible, but the thoughts kept slipping through her mind. Her grip was tight on the stirring wheel, the knuckles on her clammy hands assuming an almost deathly tint.

_He's going to be alright_ , that was all she kept repeating in her brain like a poem.

Maybe if she said it enough she would believe it.

***

"Hey.. hey, you're awake"

JJ's eyelids drowsily fluttered open only to wince at the immense brightness his pupils were greeted with. He begrudgingly welcomed the cold, emotionless white light while his eyes adjusted to the silhouette looming over him only a breath's distance away.

_Kie_ , he figured, if the soft voice and lovely smile were anything to go by.

JJ sighed in relief at the familiar presence lending her warmth to his waking body, estranged by his surroundings. Or perhaps that's what he would have done, had the air not caught on his chest and diminished into a spark of flame that burnt more and more as it licked his bones and climbed up his ribcage. The pain elicited a faint wheezing sound from his lips, the later which parted with a difficulty that could only indicate they had been sealed together only for a significant amount of time. He didn't release the breath before the inferno flaring inside his chest dissolved into a dull fit of throbs.

"What's wrong? JJ! Are you alright?" she whispered-shouted somewhat frantically, the undercurrent of panic mildly enhancing her as usual gentle voice.

JJ simply nodded, his teeth still grinding to help deal with the pain born from what he assumed was a broken rib.

A quick -although dizzy- glance around the room was enough to confirm that he was in fact in a hospital room, and soon the pale mechanical beeping of a machine perched behind Kiara shifted into his focus, enhancing the whole 'hospital aesthetic'.

" 'ey Kie…" JJ barely rasped out. His throat felt as dry as a sun-cooked raisin- a weird metaphor but it was the one that dared materialize into a thought. Nevertheless, his words were accompanied by a sleepy smile.

"miss m?"

A genuinely joyous grin was plastered on her features as soon as his breath tinged his vocal cords to produce the melody of speech. The exhale of air that left her body was long, perhaps releasing two breaths caught at once.

The skin around his nose was itching him but his limbs felt way too heavy to lift, so he let them stay warmly tucked beside his torso. The pleasant heat and smell of the freshly washed sheets spread across his body made it even harder to wish to move.

Kiara's face lit up with realization as her brain processed the way his voice was hoarse and rough, deducing that JJ's throat was most likely in need of hydration after that many hours of being asleep.

"Do you want anything? Water?" she offered, already pouring some of the transparent liquid in a spare cup from the stack on the bedside table. The sound was almost soothing but JJ willed himself awake. Making a huge effort to regain motion in his arm to press the button that tilted the bed so that he was no longer lying down, his fingers found his nose to scratch away the itch, only to be met with the rough feel of a cast.

Kiara practically shoved the cup into his hands.

"Here. Drink" she ordered and he complied, gulping down the liquid greedily. The pain awakened in almost every part of his body but he ignored it, instead reveling in the pleasant velvety coolness of the water.

"How are you feeling?" Kie asked him as she plucked the halfway empty cup from his fingers and placed it next to the telephone on the bed stand. Looking at her a bit better he could make out dark circles underneath her eyes. She looked overall tired and pale.

"Just peachy" he yawned. "What happened?"

"After…?"

"You know" he sighed bitterly

"He- You.. almost woke up a couple of times. Like, your eyes stirred a couple times, you probably don't remember. The doctors said you were lucky because you had no brain damage, but you still-"

JJ shook his head.

"I meant, how come he stopped using me as a piñata"

Kiara stopped and stared at him for a second -perhaps hurt by the choice of words- before her shoulders drooped and she leaned into the chair.

"I… I smashed a vase over his head"

"You did what?" JJ asked while a sly grin grew on his face. He chuckled incredulously, which he immediately regretted when the searing white pain rumbled in his chest.

"He's still alive" she said with pursed lips, almost as if she considered the outcome unfortunate.

He searched her eyes for as long as it took him to sober up again and for the severity of the situation to sink in again.

"Here?" he mumbled, dark shadows making his eyes misty.

Kiara simply nodded solemnly. Her brows remained firmly in a deep frown as they fell in a brief moment of uncomfortable hush. The thoughts neither of them was brave enough to voice were sure to invade every cell of his mind as he gazed groggily up at the IV leading nutrients and all that medical mumbo jumbo he didn't know to the catheter penetrating his forearm.

Just as he was about to ask for more details two swift knocks prompted both their heads to turn to the door. The ivory painted wood was shunted aside to reveal a woman dressed in the pearl white robe of a doctor over scrubs.

"Good morning mister Maybank."

JJ flinched at the name.

"I'm dr. Garcia, you're my patient for today" she said primly, uncrossing her arms from the chart balanced against her chest. "I see you've woken up! Don't worry, I'm just going to check a few things and change your casts"

"Whatever you need do, doc" he said with shallow fervor.

By the time traces of sweet cologne were all left in the room from dr. Garcia, any tension in the atmosphere between them had dissipated. JJ's thoughts were less blurry, his mind perhaps had awaken, but with it arose freshly painful memories and the loose ends they brought.

The previous evening kept repeating and playing in his brain much alike scratched vinyl, stuck to the same part of a song, condemned never to leave the nicked words behind. As his senses felt the terror all over only without the rage to numb the pain, his ears remembered a sound he wouldn't think he could forget, even for that short amount of time.

A million faces changed on his skin as he pondered and gathered the courage to bring the issue up, afraid phrasing would take the dream away and crush it like a flimsy piece of foil. The accelerated beeping of the machine mirroring the crazy thumping of his heart against his ribcage only betrayed him further.

"Hey, Princess?" he said cautiously, but to his ears it sounded like a desperate whimper. He gulped and plastered his best nonchalant expression on his features before resuming. "Do you remember when I decked *him* in the face, what you told me. Did you mean it?"

Even JJ himself could realise how pathetic of an attempt at his voice not shaking that was. The lump in his throat made it immensely more difficult to speak, combined with the throbbing pain in his chest that visited at every passage of air through him.

"What I said- Oh. "

She fixed her gaze on the ground, smiling sheepishly. Before she hid her face out of JJ's eyesight he managed to catch a glimpse of her furiously blushing cheeks. He didn't know what to make of it.

"Did you mean it?"

Kiara looked at him, fidgeting restlessly. She hugged her torso, brushing her blouse soothingly with her fingers. Whether she picked up at the way the machine beeped almost as persistently as a heart attack, she didn't show it.

One brief intake of breath that could have lasted for a decade. To say JJ had been hanging from her lips would be an understatement.

One inhale, and then the answer.

"Yes"

The blonde gawked at her, stunned.

"I meant it"

JJ shook his head, leering back a little.

"But what about Pope? I thought.."

The girl waved her hand dismissively.

"There's nothing between me and Pope. If anything we're more of siblings. I had this discussion with him too, I just" she paused, "I hadn't found an opportunity to tell you -well, until now"

She peered at him expectantly but JJ was malfunctioning.

She bit her lower lip.

"You know, after the entire gold fiasco.. John B's disa-.."

Her voice broke at the mention of their friend. The heel of her palm shot up to wipe at the welled up corner of her eye. "I needed.. something- _someone_ to hold on to. Like an anchor"

"But I guess deep down even before then, I knew. I wanted _you_ to be my anchor." she paused, smiling bitterly.

"I've known for a while. I like you, and a lot"

JJ was glitching like his cousin Kyle's relic of a laptop, perfectly mimicking a deer caught in front of headlights. His mouth opened and closed right back as he fumbled for words. He could practically sense a blush creeping in and painting all over his cheeks and underneath the cast.

Kiara giggled timidly, burying her face in her palms.

"You know what just forget it"

"-But I've made so many moves!" JJ finally blurted out, tone almost accusatory.

"What?"

Kiara sat back straight and stared at him, only traces of shame remaining in her eyes, for it gave way to bafflement.

"You always rejected me, so I accepted that nothing between us would ever happen" he frowned.

"JJ." she grinned as she caught on with his claims, "Joking about my ass doesn't count as a move"

"I-" he tried, looking mock-offended "It's a lovely ass!"

Kiara laughed and JJ loved it, cherished the sound melodious and calming like the gurgling of refreshing spring water.

His own burbling laughter blended with hers in perfect sync, in spite of his ribs protesting in ache.

"Seriously, I did. Numerous times" he mumbled somberly.

"Yeah, yeah, you sure did" she teased, raising her eyebrows smugly.

"…so?"

"So.. you like me a lot, huh?" JJ teased loftily, gifting her a lopsided grin. His chest burned like a wildfire, and this time it wasn't due to the hurt.

The taunt earned him a scoff.

"Yeah?" Kie raised an eyebrow mischievously.

"Well I like you a lot too" he said simply. His smirk melted into a sincere smile filled with love and uncertainty.

He felt bare, naked.

Aflutter, the boy apprehensively regarded the girl, what now his heart was exposed and offered as a promise he was afraid would be refused to be made.

The girl looked at him almost fondly as he struggled not to cower in the comfort of the sheets. The heat almost felt unbearable all of a sudden and the skin beneath the gauze and casts felt damp and itchy.

"You sure I'm not dead?" he gulped, "Cause this feels a lot like-"

Whatever muffled words followed were drowned out as Kiara cautiously leaned in and planted her salty lips on his, tucking her loose strands of hair behind one ear. JJ simply stared with his not swollen eye open wide at the soft lips encompassing his skin in their warmth, before he gave in to the kiss.

- _Heaven_

It was tender, fragile, an intimate moment as they shared their love, in whatever form they knew love to be. Gently, carefully, like being afraid that the full strength of their passion would shatter the other with as much ease as a fire would crumple the edges of love poem-filled paper.

_She took the offering._

Suddenly the two were one and a whole, like the notes of a harpism finding their place in the melody, only to be sung and forever treasured in the minty aftertaste of raindrops on twilit grass. Their flesh demanded to be melt in the heat of one another, and then the beads to be intertwined as they bloomed into smoldering flames.

Kiara pulled back but the memory of her taste was imprinted on JJ's lips, leaving him breathless.

"I love you"

They could be eachother's reason.

"Love you too, idiot"

For as long as it made sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was all! Thank you all so much for reading. Love yall! <3


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